Archive for December, 2008

One is that a recent study seems to show that romantic comedies are measurably bad for you. They create unrealistic expectations, which go unfulfilled, which leads to unhappiness with one’s life. This isn’t exactly surprising — neither the fact of it, nor the mechanism by which it works. We discussed this a bit, once before. But romantic comedies will always be popular, of course, because they let us vicariously live what we want our lives to be, and that’s the most powerful drug of all.

Addiction #2

The other is another recent study that shows that teenagers who take “virginity vows” are sexually active in exactly the same proportion, at exactly the same age, and with exactly the same number of partners as teenagers who didn’t take such a vow. So, aside from being incredibly creepy — have I mentioned before how creepy these things are? if not, let me say they’re creepy as a big ol’ creepy thing that goes creep creep creep — virginity vows don’t work. At all.

Worse, one area where avowed virgins do differ from their non-vowing counterparts is in their use of protection. They are much less likely to use any form of protection than teenagers who didn’t make a virginity vow. So, basically, viriginity vows are great if you’re a fan of extreme creepiness, lying, hypocrisy, teen pregnancy, and STDs. Or if you’re a parent of a teenager who just wants to feel better about your child’s [lack of] sexuality. Otherwise, they’re not so great. But, of course, the addicts in the latter category number in the millions, so we’ll continue to be stuck with all the evils of the former category.

Jaroslav Pelikan’s insistence on the continuity of Christian thought throughout its history — that is, on the essential consistency and sufficiency of that tradition — is very heavy-handed, in my opinion; nonetheless, this is a useful quote from him on the subject of religious tradition:

Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition lives in conversation with the past, while remembering where we are and when we are and that it is we who have to decide. Traditionalism supposes that nothing should ever be done for the first time, so all that is needed to solve any problem is to arrive at the supposedly unanimous testimony of this homogenized tradition.

8. Christmas, Don’t Be Late (The Chipmunks) – Admit it. You sing along to “huuulahooop” every time it comes on the radio. I actually had the entire Chipmunks Christmas album as a child. My parents are amazing people.

9. Santa, Baby (Eartha Kitt) – Eartha’s got the perfect amount of sass to pull this one off without being sleazy.

10. Last Christmas (Jimmy Eat World) – I actually like this version better than the Wham original.

And then there’s the worst Christmas song ever. Apart from the general horridness of the song itself, it’s the weird delayed synthesizer delay that puts it over the top.

Since I have nothing of interest to add to the political discussion, I’ll stick to what I know.

Best Movie I Saw: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. There’s nothing like a Holocaust movie about children to get you in the Christmas spirit, eh? This one is told from the perspective of a young boy whose father is a German soldier. They live close to a concentration camp, and he secretly befriends one of the boys. The most poignant parts of the story involve the boy and his mother as they discover the truth about his father’s job.

Looking Forward to: Slumdog Millionaire and Doubt, two extremely opposite movies that both previewed at the Striped Pajamas showing. Slumdog is about a boy who goes on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and Doubt is the story of a priest suspected of child abuse.

Most ARGH TV Moment: The frat boys making it to the final 3 of The Amazing Race. Has there ever been a less deserving team in the finals?

Best Thing I’ve Read: I’m working through some of the young adult novels mom has bought me in the past, and the best so far is Number the Stars, a story that takes place during the Holocaust. What is it with me and the Nazis? I also like to reread Little Women every Christmas, so hopefully I’ll start that soon.

Best Thing I’ve Heard: I haven’t heard the entire She & Him album, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.